Creating an engaging conversation with your clients as a business is crucial to the enterprises bottom-line. With the marketing industry being so fluid, in order to remain relevant as a marketer, you too need to always remain abreast with the changes.

Currently, any business which still employ old school methods of marketing face extinction without even realizing it. Why? This is because methods such as advertisements on the newspaper don’t have a further reach such as say; social media campaigns.

For the first time ever, there are more cellphones on earth than there are humans. According the recent US Census Bureau, the human population is at 7.2 billion- while the GSMA’s real time tracker places the number of cell phones at 7.34 billion

This form of, marketing offers you the unique ability to connect your product/services with broad audiences across the world. Admittedly, most people today transact a lot on their mobile devices, laptops and tablets, thereby; if your website is not properly set up for SEO, you will bleed out.

Online marketing encompasses many facets, this includes but not limited to:

SEO

Social Media Marketing

Blog Marketing

Mobile application

Social network marketing

Game Marketing

Online Marketing And The Impact It Has On Businesses

Cost effective

Wider audience as there are barriers such as demography

Can be applied to both large, medium as well as small businesses

Higher traffic hence more ROI

Low maintenance cost

Less paperwork

Ability to track progress on your campaign

Now that that’s covered, what are some of the skills that form the basis of any successful online marketing team? Let’s face it, sitting behind a laptop for days on can be boring and tiresome, so for one; you have to love what you do. Other than that, below are a few other mentionable skills:

SEO Familiarity

Knowledge on AdWords

Effective data analyzing

Programming

Proactivity

Being able to visualize your desired end result

Content is King

You have probably hear of- “content is king.” In the past, all you had to do was to write great content and the money would roll in. content marketing nowadays includes just more than that as you have to incorporate podcasts, video, infomercials, polls as well as infographics. Here is some help in creating compelling content.

As you have noticed there are several avenues for you to take advantage of when running an effective marketing campaign. Most of them can be customized to fit certain businesses. You may choose to purchase one marketing tool solution or opt for a combination of several.

On the long run, which ever preference you will settle for, the undeniable truth is that online marketing is breaking down traditional barriers and unlocking new potentials. Any business that is looking to make significant profits and remain relevant have to jump onto the ban wagon.

It’s now or never. Those that fail to embrace this technology will be hit by a tsunami and wiped out. With a bit of patience and digging around, you are certainly guaranteed of making and informed choice on which company will take your business into the future. One filled with immense opportunities.

The Many Facets of Online Marketing was last modified: June 2nd, 2017 by Tegan

There is no denying the fact that search engine optimisation has changed a lot over the years. However, it can be said that the pace of change will only go up in the coming years as Google will keep launching more sophisticated algorithms. Also, for the past few years, Google has invested a lot of money in artificial intelligence and it has been said many times that the future of search is artificial intelligence.

2019 is going to be the year where a majority of the searches will be handled by the artificial intelligence at Google. This will mean that the manner in which you do keyword research needs to change. One of the biggest changes that is going to happen is that rankings will be more personalised as artificial intelligence will make it easy to tailor the results to a person.

Another change that you can expect in the year 2019 is that a majority of the searches will be made through voice. This is a huge paradigm shift as voice searches are a lot different as compared to the typical keyword or phrase searches. Therefore, you need to be prepared for this change. One of the important things you can do to remain ahead is to optimise your page for voice searches by including various anticipated questions. More often than not, people use voice searches in the form of questions. It will make the long tail keywords far more important than the keywords and phrases.

Some search engine optimisation experts are also of the opinion that Amazon search will gain significant market share. In other words, you are going to be left behind in case you do not focus on Amazon search. In fact, there have been some articles in the recent years that Amazon is going to be the next Google as most products searches are now happening on Amazon instead of Google.

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As a professional in the SEO industry, you also need to learn more about technical SEO and security. So, you will not only need to focus on the performance of the website as well as the quality of the content offered on the web page but you also need to ensure that the content is delivered securely and as quickly as possible. So, you should learn about various caching plug-ins, use of content delivery networks, organisation of various CSS files and scripts among other things.

Overall, 2019 is likely to bring more changes and one needs to be constantly on their toes in order to stay ahead in this highly competitive industry.

Did you know that if you are accessing a website over HTTP, it is actually quite easy for others to ‘listen in’ on the information that the website is sending to you and vice-versa – especially if you are using a wireless connection. HTTPS traffic is, by comparison, relatively secure because the data is encrypted – but HTTP traffic is sent in plain text, which means that anyone that can ‘read the packet’ can read the data. Imagine that you’re staying in a hotel, using the wireless connection that the owner provided. Do you know for sure that the owner isn’t spying on your communications?

Most of the major websites now use HTTPS by default, but a lot of smaller websites do not – and a lot of web hosts don’t even offer SSL certificates by default, so if you aren’t proactive about setting it up there’s a high chance that your website won’t actually have it. Alternatively, you may have an SSL certificate, but not require that it be used – and therefore if you aren’t linking to your site using HTTPS, or redirecting users/making sure that HTTPS is the preferred way of reaching your site, then you may have a huge number of users who are accessing your site in a less secure way.

Google has provided webmasters who use HTTPS with a ranking bonus since mid-2014. The benefit to webmasters who have secure certificates has, until recently, been just one small signal in a huge pool of signals, and possibly not enough to make anyone want to force SSL on, or to make it worth someone who does not have SSL bothering to get a certificate – especially if their site is a static website that does not collect login details. However, that does not mean that it is not worth using SSL. Today, there are plenty of websites that offer free SSL, so you can get your site set up properly without too many problems.

Indeed, it may well be worth setting up a secure certificate for your website sooner, rather than later, as Google is already making a number of moves to push users to get certificates for their sites. The search giant already plasters a large “Not Secure” warning on the address bar of sites that do not have a secure certificate if a user attempts to access that site via Google Chrome. This is just one move towards pushing webmasters to invest in SSL, and it’s likely to be the first of many changes as Google knows that it has the power to push webmasters to make the web ‘safe by design’.

There’s no date set for “securegeddon”, yet, in the way that Google warned webmasters of Mobilegeddon – but insecure sites are being penalised to an extent, so it makes sense to make the steps to make your site more secure if you can – after all, there are free SSL options available, and even premium ones for online stores don’t have to cost the earth. If you accept any data from users on your website, then you owe it to them to protect their privacy and use SSL. It’s good practice, and it will impress tech-savvy users, while also ensuring that should there be any huge changes to the algorithm in the near future, you will not be caught off guard. Ask your web host today for some tips so that you can get your site set up in the most secure way possible – it will pay off, and your users will thank you for it.

Is google moving towards ranking only websites that have secure certificates? was last modified: February 7th, 2018 by Tegan

Google Search Console is one of the less well known offerings from Google for webmasters to manage their websites. Most webmasters know about Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. The Search Console is an additional tool that lets you see who is linking to your site, how much traffic you are getting from the search results, whether there are any errors in your metadata, and how your site looks in the search results.

Checking your website in Google Search Console on a regular basis will give you an early warning signal so that you can start promoting your site without worry that there are errors in it. You will be able to see if there are issues such as broken links, bad rich snippets, or even issues with server downtime or crawl errors. Once you know these things are happening, it becomes easier to fix them.

The Google Search Console is a free tool, but to use it with your website you will have to prove that you own the site – either by uploading a file to the server, or by inserting some code into the header of each page. Once you have done that, you will be able to see updates and information about the status of the site, and you will be able to analyse how it looks.

Remember that SEO is something that should be an ongoing effort – and that Google is always re-evaluating websites and looking for new (or lost) links. For this reason, it is important that you keep checking the console to see if anything has changed. The console can serve as a valuable early warning tool for issues with spam, or for errant plugins or damaged theme files that have caused problems with your site.

Why is it important to check your website in Googles Search Console weekly? was last modified: February 7th, 2018 by Tegan

Is your startup SEO agency struggling to acquire new clients? Given the ever-increasing competition in the industry, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that landing your first couple of clients is immensely difficult. Prospective clients can turn to other more established companies, so you need to give them a reason to pick your agency. Believe me, we have been there!

I Hope you enjoy this article 🙂 I have put a few case studies in of examples that should give you a better understanding of what i am actually talking about. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot us an email.

With virtually no credibility to back up your name, how can you position your SEO agency as one of the best in the game? Keep reading for some tips on how to fuel the growth of your company.

1) Practice what you preach.

It’s easy to create blogs that talk about the best practices in SEO from content marketing and conversion optimisation to advanced analytics and link building techniques. However, it’s a different story when it comes to showing potential clients that you really know your stuff.

As soon as they land your website, it should be evident that you can be trusted with everything you say. There’s no use to producing one high quality blog post after another if your website has terrible page load speed, isn’t optimized for mobile devices and fails to provide the best user experience.

Business owners are becoming tech savvy, so don’t assume that they’ll fall for high quality content alone.

2) Back up your blogs with hard facts.

One of the best ways to showcase your knowledge, experience and expertise in SEO is to create blogs that do not only contain regurgitated information. There’s no use to producing an SEO-optimised article in an attempt to drive targeted traffic. What’s more important is to convert even just a handful of visitors by doing something other agencies do not.

For example, you can come up with your own case study about a particular aspect of SEO. An SEO Agency which show a great example of this is Darren Boyle’s London Based Agency. As you can see above, he actually posts live rankings of his clients on every page of his website. Although his digital agency ranks on the first page of Google and Bing for lots of different keywords like SEO Surrey, showing case studies of client results, shows that he understands how to rank someone else’s business, not just his own Search Marketing company.

You may also want to show them whether a certain ranking factor is as powerful as many claim it to be. Debunking myths can surely grab the attention of would-be clients. It also shows that you’re doing your research, which is necessary to keep up with the constant changes in the SEO environment.

3) Speak at non-industry events.

You can expand your network by speaking at SEO and marketing conferences. If you manage to land a position in a prestigious event, then you might be able to bank big time. The problem, however, is that you have a very small chance of doing so as a small startup. As an alternative, you might want to look into opportunities at non-industry events.

SEO is relevant in all industries. It’s a matter of tailoring your speech to the specific needs of your audience. Even if non-industry events may not have as many attendees, there’s still a good chance of expanding your network by simply getting your name out there.

4) Offer help for free.

At first, this advice may not make sense. But when done consistently, this proves to be a very powerful marketing method. Everybody loves getting free SEO services. This is a great opportunity to show how good you are to prospective clients. Of course, nobody will accept your offer even if it’s completely free. But you might just land your first client using this technique.

If you’re lucky, the business you help might decide to create a post that talks about the positive results they got from your free service. This will probably land you a high quality, relevant and authoritative link. Not to mention, your name will be seen by the targeted followers of that particular business, which may trigger word-of-mouth marketing.

5) Focus on results.

In the world of SEO, everything you do must be results driven. You can’t say to a client that you “did your best.” Back it up with real results. That’s the key to staying in the industry for the long term. Failing to provide the results to clients will inevitably spell doom for your startup SEO agency.

6) Provide more than just rankings!

Ranking your client on the first page of Google is great but, SEO companies who go that extra mile will always grow faster by providing a service your client will want to tell everyone about. So what can you you do to add extra value? A good idea would be to help the client actually convert the visitors that are now getting to their website into paying customers.

A website to checkout in regard to this is Brand That Name, an SEO Agency in Leeds. A big part of their success has come from creating unique ways of helping their clients convert search engine traffic. One of the ways that they do this is by offering their clients free animated/virtual website spokespersons when they buy an SEO package from Brand That Name. The animated spokesperson is added to the clients website, so that when a potential customer opens the website, it pops up as soon as the page loads. The spokesperson then talks to the visitor from what is clearly a carefully planned CTA script to encourage the visitor to take an action, such as emailing them straight away. You can see the one they have on their own website below.

It takes a whole lot of time, effort and resources to grow your SEO agency from nothing. You’re at a huge disadvantage at the start, as you need to battle it out against businesses with experience and track record to back them up. But with enough patience, dedication and hard work, you should be able to land one client after another and take your business to new heights.

What It Takes To Make A Successful SEO Agency From Nothing? was last modified: June 5th, 2017 by Tegan

Understanding the influential metrics in online marketing is essential because metrics help to determine how well your online marketing strategies are so as to counter competition. Here are some of the online metrics that you should take into consideration.

Time on site

Considering the amount of time, the average user spends on your website is very essential. By analyzing the time on the site, you can know whether you are meeting the users’ demands. By extension, the more time users spend on your site, the chances of them contacting you become higher. Do not be concerned with website page views only.

However, keep note that most people who click on a page do not necessarily read its contents. In fact, more than fifty-five percent of visitors spend less than fifteen seconds on your page. To better your chances, remain specific with the information

Importantly, set goals for improvement. Ensure the site is easy to navigate and the content is easy to read.

Conversions

In sales and marketing, conversion is not a new term. It implies similarity across all verticals. Actually, it is the ratio of attempted sales to the actual sales. Highly targeted email and paid search campaign lead to a higher conversion rate. A more targeted campaign means a high conversion rate. To increase the conversion rate try to:

Use explainer videos

Segment audiences

use press coverage

Click through rate

It is characterized by the number of people clicking on the links you offer. Apart from leading to more information, they also facilitate sale pages. CTR is much preferable when using email marketing. In addition, it is a key metric in paid searches. CTR is essential since it shows your marketing efforts and overall progress. Use email blasts and optimized ads to increase your Click through rate.

Returns from website visitors

Note the percentage of visitors who have returned to your website. Brand loyalty and more sales are factors that contribute to a higher returning visitor rate. Remember to segment your past customers according to the email campaigns

Bounce rate

Bounce rate is the rate at which visitors leave your website. A lower bounce rate always suggests that you are meeting the users’ demands. Similarly, they will want to visit your website again. Research shows that great websites have a bounce rate of less than twenty-five percent. Optimized websites range between 26-70%.

There are plenty of metrics that you can keep an eye on but at the end of the day the most important metric you need to watch is your bottom line.

The Metrics You Need to pay Attention to in Online Marketing was last modified: May 20th, 2017 by Tegan